For $200 you might pick up something like a Radeon HD 6670, which—let’s be honest—is a massive step down from what you're running now. In my book, it's a complete waste of cash, and honestly, you won't even have any fun with it on a new rig. I’d much rather hunt down a used 4850 for about half the price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/graphics-card-listing
Andrew Barrett4 said:It’s probably best to stash metals somewhere a detector can’t reach. Maybe inside some wood or even down a well 🤣
By the way, I recently got into a bit of a debate with my husband about this. He isn’t exactly a fan of precious metals—he doesn't really believe in anything that doesn't have "tangible value" just sitting there. In investment terms, he’s more of a "frugal builder" type; he’d rather just buy land or build something. To him, a brick is a brick. If I start talking about how bricks don't actually create value but instead just generate ongoing costs, we'll be here all night because he immediately pivots to "utility." (I suppose if you read between the lines, there's a lot of these kinds of debates before any major purchase, since investment decisions aren't solo acts—they're joint ventures)
In a last-ditch effort to make him understand, I tried explaining it using a Pokémon analogy 🤣 Every one has its own "powers," but they also have their "demons"—basically, pros and cons. You pick your weapons, or your Pokémon, based on the situation you're facing. And right now, the situation feels like one where you simply need to have some gold and silver "Pokémon" in your lineup. There's a very real chance things could play out in a way where you won't have much to pay with if you haven't prepared.
The downside of metals really just comes down to their physical nature—the fact that metal is metal and has its own set of properties
>>just smaller bullion or coins. >>store them where they stay out of sight. >>never keep all your metal in one single spot. >>and of course, never put all your wealth into one single asset class (including metals).
Honestly, just buy out a whole poultry farm and turn all those chickens into solid gold—I promise you nobody is going to be scanning individual birds with a metal detector. 😁
darkowl12 said:I could probably get by with a basic printer, but the catch is my nearest print shop is about a 12-mile trek away—not exactly convenient—so I’ll definitely need some copying capabilities every now and then. What's the actual deal between the HP 1132 and that HP 1212 you mentioned? From what I can see, the toner is identical, and the HP 1212 just adds a fax function which I don't even need. Is there any significant difference in print quality or the scanner?
The main thing is that it's slower when printing or scanning because it's got way less memory (we're talking 8MB versus 64MB)—plus, you lose out on connectivity options like LAN, WiFi, or Bluetooth and all that. That said, the actual print and scan quality isn't any worse. If you truly only care about the bare essentials, the cheaper one works fine. You might want to check the prices over at Best Buy; you can grab a printer there, and honestly, they are dirt cheap compared to what you'd find at Silicon Valley.
Look, that LaserJet 1300 is basically a ten-year-old relic—it was half-junk even when it was brand new, and honestly, "quality" isn't a word you'd ever want to use in the same sentence as that thing. And whatever you do, don't go buying anything from that overpriced Silicon Valley shop; their prices are an absolute disaster, so just grab it from an online retailer instead. This one is actually a solid all-in-one (it’s practically a $567 over at Microchip Technology):
A toner that handles about 1,600 pages will run you roughly $150.
Anyway, if you look below $333, you'll have a hard time finding anything decent—either the print quality is mediocre or the scanner is total garbage... and seriously, stay far away from that Lexmark, it's painfully slow and the print quality is bottom-tier.
Do you actually need an all-in-one, or are you just looking for a basic printer?
Look, drives in those larger cases usually top out well above 1 TB, and honestly, you aren't going to find one within your budget—where on earth did you see them cheaper? For maybe 500 bucks—$200you can grab a 500 GB drive, something like this:
Or if you want 750 GB:
The only catch is that the larger one doesn't have a USB 3.0 port—but let's be real, you probably don't even have a USB 3.0 port on your laptop anyway, so it shouldn't really be an issue.
Just grab whatever bottom-of-the-barrel ATI card you can find—maybe a 5450 or something—because, let's be honest, your PC clearly wasn't built for gaming in the first place, so it won't really matter what you pick.
Honestly, there’s zero point in throwing more money at this—those overpriced mice are usually just built for traveling or packed with some "gamer" gimmicks that you don't actually need anyway.
You can probably snag an HD 6570/DDR3 for around $400--$150 though honestly, anything weaker than that isn't even worth your time. What exactly are you trying to do with HDMI anyway?
You should probably check out those Transcend drives. From what I’ve gathered, the Seagate Expansion series is decent enough—it just runs pretty power-hungry—so you usually end up needing a Y-cable if you're plugging into USB 2.0 ports, since they only push about 500 mA compared to the 900 mA you get from USB 3.0.
I’d personally go with the DashDrive—it’s just built more ruggedly, you know? Better at handling the occasional drop or bump without throwing a tantrum. But look, let’s be real about hard drives in general: don't go expecting 100% reliability. Every batch has its share of duds, and honestly, nobody can promise you a drive will run flawlessly for three, five, or ten years straight. It’s just the nature of the beast. Always have a backup plan ready. And for anything actually important? Keep it in at least two different places. 🙂
Honestly, I think you’d get way more bang for your buck just upgrading to a decent Logitech webcam instead of wasting your time messing around with lighting setups.